Teachers, students satisfied

New schools

Sometimes a classroom isn't the only place you can have class - that's one of the advantages Clarke County students at new schools have discovered in the past weeks.

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There still are a few bobbles to work out, but students and teachers at Alps Road and Gaines elementary schools are settling into new buildings, officials said this week. Gaines students moved into their new school, located beside Hilsman Middle School, more than two weeks ago, while Alps Road students had their first full day in a new school Monday.

The new schools, virtual twins of each other that cost about $6 million each to build, are a big change for students and staff, with high ceilings, bright colors and big windows that create a light and airy atmosphere. Grade levels are separated into wings off a main corridor, and Alps Road teachers already have begun using "pods" - large, open community areas in the hallways outside a group of four classrooms - as additional instruction space, Rojek said.

"The vision was that it would enable us to spread out, and that's exactly what's happening," she said. "The first-grade classes have their computers out there, so it's being used as an expansion of the classroom. Kindergarten classes are using them for phonics games and working with tutors."

Both schools also have space in an administrative office area for a parent resource center, where literacy and GED classes can be held or parents can get information about community services. It also provides a space for parent volunteers to do tasks such as cutting bulletin board displays out of construction paper and laminating materials for teachers.

Alps Road intends to use the resource center to expand the school's GED classes, which currently are offered to parents of Alps Road students two nights a week.

Beginning in February, they hope to offer a daytime course that's not limited to just parents, Rojek said.

Some problems still are being smoothed out, including procedures for dropping off and picking up students, as everyone gets used to the new routines and learns where they enter the new buildings.

"I have so much respect for the parents, who are being patient with us while we work out the kinks," Rojek said.

Meanwhile, district officials who oversaw the construction, paid for with special-purpose, local-option sales tax money, still are working on several other SPLOST projects that will move to the forefront now that the two new school buildings are done.

Renovations at Clarke Middle School - which have including gutting and refurbishing the school wing by wing in a $5.9 million project - are scheduled for completion in upcoming weeks, and workers are trying to complete a $2.5 million project that included renovations at Barrow Elementary School and an expansion that's still being completed.

Officials also are focusing on a $9 million renovation and expansion project at Clarke Central High School that will include a 49,000-square-foot, three-story addition behind the main school building, said Ted Gilbert, who oversees the school district's SPLOST projects.

The addition, scheduled for completion in December, also will include a concession stand for the football field and a press box that eventually will include a studio for students taking broadcasting courses.